Is It A Horse?

Part 2 in the ‘Unusual Breeds on Tooting Bec Common’ series

While out walking Shuggie on the Common, we keep coming across the more unusual breeds of dog. We ran in to a Malamute a few weeks back, and then this week, while enjoying the sunshine and the smell of the damp grass, and avoiding the huge puddles, another beast of a hound approached. It was big and hairy, and was wearing a muzzle. This gave me pause. Yes, the muzzle would stop it biting, but why was it wearing one? It’s owner, a French girl on a bicycle, came over to chat. She told me the dog was a Briard, a French sheepdog, “from where they make the cheese”. It was lovely, and apparently needed lots of grooming.

But what about the muzzle? Well, she said it was just when he was with big dogs, he got excited. As it was, he was very friendly with Shuggie, who was doing his nervous sniffing and quick tail-wagging, on account of the size of this thing. He was friendly with me too, leaning against my legs heavily while I scratched his ear. Then the Briard lay down on his back, and rolled his eyes in that mad way dogs have, allowing Shuggie to poke his schnoz in the Briards nethers. Nice.